Wheeling register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1878-1935, 1887-09-26

cannot build wall so high as
to be independent of the character
of its foundation? A man before thirty
years of age may commit enough sin to
last him lifetime A cat that has killed
one pigeon cannot be cured. Keep it from
killing the first pigeon. Now, John, or
George, or Charles, or William, or Alexan-
der, or Andrew, or Henry, or whatever be
your Christian name or surname, say here
and now: NO wild oats for me, no cigars
or cigarettes for me, no wine or beer for
me, no nasty stories for me, no Sunday
spreeS for me, am going to start right and
keep on right God help me, for am
very weak. From the throne Of eternal
righteousness let down to me the princi-
pies by which / can be guided in building
everything from foundation to capstone.
Lord God, by the wounded hand of Christ,
throw me plumb linen'
Lord Nelson's general direction when
going into naval battle was, no man can
do wrong that places his ship close along
side that of the enemy. My friend, you
will never do wrong if you keep your life
close
ALONGSIDE THE TEN COMMANDMENTS.
Do right, and you can be as brave as Maria
Theresa, who rode up the Hill Of Defiance
and shook her sword at the four corners Of
the earth.
But" you say, ''you shut us young
folks out from all fun" o, no! / like
fun. / believe in fun. have had lots OF
it in my time. But have not had to 20
into paths of sin to find it. No credit to
me, but because of an extraordinary pa
rental example and influence was kept
from outward transgressions, though my
heart was bad enough and desperately
wicked. l have had fun illimitable,
though never swore one oath, and never
gambled for so much as the value of pin,
and never saw the inside of haunt of sin,
save IS when ten years ago with commission
er of Police and detective andtwo elders of
my church, l explored these cities by mid
night, not out of curiosity, but that
might in pulpit discourse and set before
the people the poverty and the horrors
of underground city life. Yet, though
| never was intoxicated for an
instant, and never committed one act of
diSSoluteness, restrained only by the grace
of God, without which restraint / would
have gone headlong to the bottom of ill.,
fanny, have had 80 much fun that don't
believe, their is a man OH the. planet
who has had more. Hear it, men and
boys, women and girls, all the fun is on
the side Of right. Sin may seem attractive,
but it is deathful, and like the manchineel,
tree whose dews are poisonous. The
only genuine happiness is in an honest
Christian life. The Chippewa, wanting to
see God, blackens his face with charcoal
and fasts till he has vision of what he
calls God. My God l can see best when |
take my hat off and let the sunshine blaze
in my face, and after reasonable break
fast. He is not q God of blackness and
starvation, but
OF LIGHT AND PLENTITUDE,
and the glory of the monday sun is Egypt
ian midnight compared TO it. There they
go-two brothers. The one was converted
year ago in church, one Sunday morn
ing, during prayer, or sermon, or hymn.
No one knew it at the time. The persons
on either side of him suspected nothing,
but in that young mans soul this process
went on: Lord, here | am, a
young man amid the temptations of
city life, and am afraid
to risk them alone; come and be my par
don and my help; save me from making
the mistake that some Of my comrades
quicker than flash God rolled "neaNeA
into his soul. He is Just as jolly as he
used to be. He can strike ball or
catch one as easily as before he was con-
verted. With gun or fishing rod in thia
summer vacation he was Just as skilltul as
before. The world is brighter to him than
ever. He appreciates pictures, music, in
nocent hilarity, social life, good jokes, and
has plenty of fun, first-class fun, glorious
fun. But his brother is going down hill.
In the morning his head aches from the
champagne debauch. Everybody sees he is
in rapid descent. What cares he for right,
or decency, or the honor of his family
name? Turned out Of employment, de-
ected in health, cast down in spirits, the
typhoid fever strikes him in the small
est room on the fourth story
of fifth rate boarding house,
cursing God, and calling for his mother,
and fighting back demons from his dying
pillow, which is besweated and torn TO
rags. He plunges out of this world with
the Shrek OF a destroyed spirit. Alas for
that kind of fun! 1t is remorse. 1t is de-
spar. II is blackness Of darkness. 1t is
woe unending and long reyerberating, and
crushing as though all the mountains of all
continents rolled on him in one avalanche.
NV soul, stand hack from such fun.
Young man, there is no fun in shipwreck
ing your character, no fun in disgraCing
your fathers name. There is no fun in
BREAKING YOUR MOTHERS HEART.
There is no fun in the physical pangs of
the dissolute. There is no fun in the pro-
filgate's death-bed. There is no fun in an
undone eternity. Paracelsus, ont of the
ashes of a burnt rose, said he could re-cre-
ate the rose, but he failed In the alchemic
undertaking, and roseate life once burned
down in sin can never again be made To
blossom.
Oh, this plumb line of the everlasting
right! God will throw it over all our
lives to show us our moral dehections.
God will throw il over all churches to show
whether they are doing useful work or are
standing instances of idleness and pre-
tense. He will throw that plumb line
over all nations TO demonstrate whether
their laws are just or cruel, their rulers
good or bad, their ambitions holy or in
famous He threw that plumb line over
the Spanish monarchy of other days, and
what became Of her? Ask the splintered
hulks of her overthrown Armada. He
threw that plumb line over French impe.
rialism, and what was the result? Ask
the ruins of the Tuileries, and the fallen
column of the Place Vendome, and the
grave trenches of Sedan, and the blood Of
revolutions at different times rolling
through the Champs Elysees. He threw
that plumb line over ancient Rome, and
what became of the realm of the Caesars ?
Ask her war eagles, with beak dulled and
wings broken, flung helpless into the
Tiber. He threw it over the
Assyriau Empire Of thousand
years, the thrones of Semiramis, apd Sar-
daDapalus, and Shalmaneser, Of twenty
seven victorious expeditions, the cities OF
Phoenicia knceling to the sceptre, and all
the world blanched in the presence. What
became Of all the grandeur? Ask the fallen
palaces of Khorsabad and the corpses OF
her one hundred and eighty-fye thousand
soldiery slain by the angel of the Lord in